Patient Zero, Kurt Heinrich Hyatt, novel, futuristic sci-fi

Starpilot Michael Bell, on a mining expedition to the Outer Rim, survives an alien virus outbreak aboard his starfreighter and crash lands it on Hadley’s Planet, a mining outpost within the United Homeworlds. A pandemic soon erupts, killing thousands, and authorities decree Mike is Patient Zero, though he’s immune and not a carrier. He’d also brought back knowledge of the most valuable emeralds ever discovered, and though the virus protects the riches from pilfering, a mad rush to locate the mine ensues. Mike is the only soul who knows where it is, but having sworn to never go back to those horrors, he escapes to Earth with the lovely but bossy Dr. Blanca Marina, a viral researcher on the hunt for a vaccine. Their journey pits them against the mining company, a hybrid breed of lizard-humans, and dogged law enforcement bent on his capture. As the death toll mounts across the Homeworlds, the virus mutates, and Mike succumbs. His only hope for survival lies with Dr. Marina and a cure that’s worse than the disease.